A broken Promise?
by nonoctemolke
Summary: The aftermath of a full moon that Sirius could not attend. He visits Remus in the shrieking shack after the transformation is over. slice-of-life / drabble-ish oneshot.


**AN:** A short fic I came up with this morning.  
It's a drabble-ish one-shot. Sort of a slice-of-life.  
I hope you like it :)

**Warnings:** Nothing much, mentioning of injuries and one death threat of sorts - boring if you asked me but since I was unsure which rating fit, I stuck with T rather than K+ just to be on the safe side.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter and it's Characters in any way or form. I'm only borrowing them without making any profit - this was written just for the fun of it.

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The door creaked when he opened it and cast a glance in the room behind it. It was difficult to see anything in the darkness but he stared in the room nonetheless.

The moon had already set and he had witnessed his friends return to the dorm. In fact, their return had woken him. And he had been unable to go back to sleep.  
So he had decided to get up and go visit Remus in the Shrieking shack. It was bad enough that he had not been able to be there for the transformation but he'd be damned if he stayed away now that he was awake anyway and Remus was safe again.  
Not that he thought that Rem would ever hurt him.

As silent as possible he shuffled into the room. He did not want to disturb his friend but he had felt compelled to at least be there for him in the aftermath of his transformation. He felt guilt for he had broken his promise.

He had promised Remus that he would never miss a transformation, that he'd be there for every single moon from the time he was able to change into Padfoot. But this moon, he had not been there. He had not been able to go due to a curse a Slytherin – who he was going to kill the next time he saw him – had cast on him. A curse that really messed with the castee's magic and transforming while the curse was still on him (it would fade away over the course of 37 hours) would most likely be deadly. They had all known that. So it had been only James and Peter who went to keep Moony company that night.

Silently he walked over to the patch of floor where Remus was sprawled out on.  
He gasped upon seeing the extend of the injuries – and considering they were already only a few compared to before they started to accompany him, he shuddered at the thought.  
Quietly creeping towards the bed, he took the blanked and carefully draped it over his friend.  
Settling down on the floor, cross-legged, with his back leaning against the bed, Sirius watched his sleeping friend.

He did not know if it was hours or minutes later that Remus started to stir. The first sign that Remus was waking up was his scrunching up his face in pain. A low groan escaped him next. Then his eyelids fluttered slightly but they did not open yet.  
But still, a mumbled question almost silently passed his lips. "Siri?" The meaning behind the question was clear. He was asking why he was there. There was no doubt in his voice that he wasn't there at all.

"Your nose is as good as ever, Rem." Sirius chuckled softly.  
"Wh…at?" His voice was still weak and muffled with sleep.  
"What I am doing here, you want to know? The others woke me when they came back. And since I was already awake… I'm sorry, Moony, I could not keep my word." He hung his head in shame. "I broke my promise."  
"N't you' fau…lt."  
Sirius smiled sadly. He wished he could believe that. But it was a fact that he had broken a promise.  
"How're you holdin' up?"  
"Hurts." The short answer made him cringe in sympathy. Carefully he wiped Remus brow with hastily transfigured tissue – it was dotted pink and neon green instead of white but it did the job – and if anyone asked he'd lie and say that that was what he had intended.  
"Tell… me…. Something." Wheezed Remus slowly. There was so much pain in his voice and Sirius wanted nothing more than to run to the infirmary and drag Mme Pomfrey here but he knew he could not let her know that they knew. So instead he stayed put and tried to tend to his friend.

"Tell you something, hmm? I don't know… What should I tell you? Did we already tell you about the newest prank James an' I came up with? We'll need your help with it, of course, when the time comes. At next week's Quidditch game – it's Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw which I hope you remember!" He teasingly scolded his friend. "We want to swap their posters. Or rather we want to simultaneously transfigure all Hufflepuff posters and flags and so on into Ravenclaw's and the other way around. I know, I know, that'll be a complicated piece of spellwork but we won't know unless we try, right? But we'll talk about that when you're back on your feet." Sirius gasped for air. He really should learn to breathe occasionally while talking about pranks.

"Oh, and I want to prank Frank! You know how he started dating Alice, right? And that calls for a celebration, right? And what better way to celebrate than to prank him, right? Right?" He asked excitedly. "Oh, and did you hear the newest rumour – I think Rosie is responsible for that – apparently I am madly in love with Snivellus." He shuddered. "I mean, the other way around I could understand – hey, I'm irresistible after all! – but-"

A chortled laugh that quickly turned into a pained cough and then in some sort of whimper, interrupted him.

"Ah, sorry, Moony! I am so sorry!" he wailed. "I did not mean to make you laugh. Well, I did want to cheer you up, but, I'm sorry, I didn't consider that laughing would most likely hurt!"  
It may not have been intended, but his out-cry only seemed to make Remus laugh harder – although he managed to keep his movement to a minimum. He was only slightly shaking.

"Glad to see that you find my apology funny." Sirius said angrily – yet he could not stay angry for more than a few seconds before he started talking excitedly again.  
"So, So, you know, that Ravenclaw McMurdoc, I heard she totally has the hots for Pete – I really can't relate to that, what with the three dashing young men he hangs around with" at that he winked at Remus. "But apparently she's been pining after him for weeks. So, what do you think? Do we lend her a hand?"  
"And scare her off? Pads, really. You should behave yourself." His ability to speak without wheezing of pain was steadily improving.  
"That's a yes then."  
"Oy!" It had been a 'no'.  
"Good. Now I only need to talk to James about it."  
Sirius ignored the mumbled "I give up." of his friend and sighed as he saw the first sun rays sneak their way into the shack through the many small cracks in the outer walls. They were too small for anyone to look in but enough for some light to sneak in.  
Sirius sighed. "Poppy will be here soon."  
Remus made some movement with his head that hinted at a nod and tried to smile – it was a bit crooked due the pain in his muscles but still Sirius recognized it for what it was supposed to be.  
"You should go."  
"Yes, I should." Carefully he stood up, took a last look at his friend and made his way back out the door. "See you after lunch."

The soft "thank you" echoed in the room, unheard by any except the one who uttered it. In his book the promise stayed unbroken.

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**AN2: **Thank you for reading :)


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